A total and absolute fu#k up from Queensland Labor

Anyone who has been following the sad saga of how our Queensland government introduced a new way to pay its doctors and nurses would have to see that the whole thing is a text book definition of of a total and absolute Fuck up, The Bligh government took a system that worked and replaced it with one that didn’t and subsequently they have tried to fix it on multiple occasions and still medical employees are not being properly paid. This is the folly of trying to fix things that are not broken, you risk making them far worse and for what? Usually its because some theoretician gets a “bright” idea of how things will be “better”. (there has to be a lesson here or those who think that they are “progressive” ;) ) Anyway to add insult to injury the Bligh Government has been trying to recover over payments made to nurses and doctors, threatening dire consequences to those who refuse to stump up the cash or dispute that any refund is owed. Of course its a PR disaster fro the Bligh Government so they seem to quite sensibly be backing down:

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Now on one level I think that medical staff are morally obliged to return overpayments to their employer I can’t help thinking that the state government should just wear it and see it as a minor compensation for the inconvenience that their reforming zeal has imposed upon some of the most dedicated and vital people in the employ of the government. The message here for all governments is simple: If it ain’t Broke, don’t fix it and if it is broken fix it properly.

10 Comments

The floods/cyclone were a public relations golden goose to Bligh in their timing. Stuff ups with the payroll bungle and selling off assets made her very unpopular. Along comes a disaster, she responds well, and the people temporarily forget. Only temporarily though….

I agree that the people will forget her outstanding leadership in those events. Contrast her performance to Ted Baillieu’s inept response to Victoria’s floods and you’ll understand that the disaster was no gift to her. I actually believe she saved lives, not in the floods but in the 2nd (Yasi cyclone) event, because when she told people how to prepare for it, they were conditioned to listen to her and follow her lead. It would have been more timely for her if it’d happened closer to the election. The ALP have had a long run in Qld so they’ll probably lose. Should be a real hoot watching the clearly conflicted Libs & Nats pull themselves apart though.

I was in the cyclone. Bligh said she would be there with us throughout the night. The next morning she said “When i woke this morning…” She went to sleep and worried another day. We never got any sleep. I still have a backyard with 2 swimming pools (one belongs to the neighbour),so much for pool fencing laws, 5 months without one and there are others way worse off. 4 months to remove asbestos from my backyard. Others that had houses totalled are now fighting capital gains taxes from insurance payouts. Those on the outside think she looks good. The local radio station got us through, until 9pm anyway when we lost power and phones.

Sorry to hear about that, Jilly. Surely though, Bligh was giving clear & timely warnings at least two days out from the Yasi event and, surely, some people at least (a lot I’d suggest) in the affected areas took heed of her advice and survived due to her influence. Contrast Bligh to Christine Nixon and others including Premier John Brumby during Victoria’s Black Saturday bushfires. No timely warnings whatsoever and in the days leading up to the predicted “worst fire conditions since Ash Wednesday”, they were still encouraging people to stay & defend. And they failed to pinpoint the most vulnerable areas. Even an amateur like me got that one right:

It was scary but I can’t see Blair had any influence. My opinion is she stood on the box and read scripts others had written. Pure opportunist. The BOM website was invaluable and the updates were fully informative, that’s what saved people. The radio stations relayed onwards this information. The SES guys did a tremendous job afterwards.

Don’t forget that you are paying for it now July 1 has come around with the Flood levy. The millions upon millions sent overseas for aid and when it comes time to help out fellow aussies, LETS TAX ‘EM. Another $16 million only yesterday to Sudan.

I think you meant Bligh, not Blair. Didn’t look scripted by others to me, in fact I’ve seen copies of HER hand-written notes. I wish Brumby had been as good an “opportunist” as she was. Did you even read my day-before-Black-Saturday-post?

Anyway, I’m not defending her right to stay in Govt – I’m just saying she exhibited outstanding leadership in a crisis. I agree that the failure to insure State-owned infrastructure was very poor risk management and the levy is her fault. She’s going to lose and I won’t shed any tears when she does.

Ray,
Anna Bligh did do well during the floods and Yasi. It was telling that Julia Gillard couldn’t wait to sidle alongside her for the photo op. Unfortunately, she couldn’t maintain it and has quickly reverted to type.
I’ll say it again: The people of Australia are poorly served by the politicians we have at the current time. ALL politicians.

Ray, Ok finally I read your post on the other site. I see the populated areas are more at risk using historical mapped data. Why wouldn’t the twits who are experts in this field and our leaders see it also. Prior to ’83 was the Hobart fires of ’67 which also took out the urban area and left 7,000 homeless. Sure, the riskiest areas are the cities. Think I would rather try out-run one on a country road too than in peak hour.

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